Who is Mario, really? It's a question the internet has been asking since the retirement of long-time Mario voice actor Charles Martinet, as they pondered who might be replacing him as the voice of the iconic Nintendo plumber. And it's a question I had been obsessed with for the last 24 hours or so. Yesterday, both the internet and I thought we had finally found the answer in an actor named Mick Wingert. But Wingert's denial of his own potential Mario-ness threw me into total bafflement.
Now we have an official answer: Nintendo has confirmed that Mario's voice in Super Mario Wonder is not Mick Wingert, but Kevin Afghani, who is taking on the role of the iconic plumber as well as his brother, Luigi.
Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!
— Kevin Afghani (@KevinAfghani) October 13, 2023
"Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder," Afghani wrote on Twitter. "Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!"
Mystery solved. But it took a while for us to get here.
The Mario mystery
The rumors about Wingert and Mario kicked off yesterday with the circulation of an unconfirmed list of voice actors supposedly from the credits of upcoming game Super Mario Bros. Wonder. As reported by VGC, this list was allegedly pulled from a kiosk demo that listed all the game's voice actors. However, the list seemed to be in alphabetical order by last name, and did not include what roles each person played.
A number of internet sleuths, myself included, tore the list apart, built spreadsheets, and combed IMDB pages and demo reels trying to figure out which one of its 21 actors was Mario, but the results proved inconclusive. Some names were familiar and easily to rule out, such as Caety Sagoian, Kenny James, and Samantha Kelly likely reprising their performances of Bowser Jr., Bowser, and Peach and the Toads respectively. Other names, such as Anton Kobylko, Ewout Eggink, and Rafa Parra were less familiar, but primarily voice roles in other languages.
Finally, there were a handful of women on the list such as Dawn M. Bennet, Christine Marie Cabanos, and Giselle Fernandez. And while women can certainly be anything they want to be, including Mario, it was a bit less likely that Nintendo would cast a woman in the role of Mario, Luigi, and Wario.
All this left me, and seemingly every other internet detective, with two names: Kevin Afghani and Mick Wingert, neither of whom had appeared in a Mario game before. Wingert seemed like the likeliest choice, not the least because Afghani's voice demo reel sounded remarkably similar to the English voice of the Wonder Flower we'd heard in trailers, and Mick Wingert's demonstrated role range and extensive past experience seemed a likely fit for a role spanning not just Mario, but Baby Mario, Luigi, Wario, and other characters as well.
But Mick Wingert's official, on the record response was that while he could neither confirm nor deny his involvement in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, "he could confirm that he was NOT voicing Mario."
Instead it's Afghani, who has now confirmed that he's taken on the iconic role in Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Mario's new voice revealed
Wingert's initial denial left us flummoxed. After all, Wingert's a prolific actor with a boatload of game credits — more than anyone else in the rumored cast list. He's been in Starfield, Diablo 4, Dead Island 2, Diablo Immortal, Deadcraft, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and has performed in animation in Arcane, Marvel's What If...?, and took over from Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda.
It's unclear who Wingert plays in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. It's not impossible that he would show up just to voice, I dunno, a couple squeaky Popplin sounds, but it's not the most likely explanation. Is he replacing long-time Yoshi actor Kazumi Tokata, who isn't on the list anywhere? Or is he the Wonder Flower while Afghani is the actual Mario? That seems more likely, but Afghani just sounds so much like the flower. Maybe Afghani is both the Flower and Mario, and Wingert is doing something else?
Either way, we now know that Afghani is the official voice of Mario. Case closed. Now that the mystery is solved, you should read our recently published final preview of Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Its upcoming release represents a passing of the torch for Mario's iconic voice from Charles Martinet, who began voicing Mario in 1994's Mario Teaches Typing. Nintendo announced his retirement from the role earlier this year, saying he would shift into the role of Mario Ambassador going forward to "travel the world sharing the joy of Mario."
If that sounds a bit vague to you, you're not alone, as Martinet himself has admitted he doesn't really know what the role is all about. Just like we didn't know who Mario really was until recently. Tough world out there.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.